Repeating rubber band toy gun



NOV. 27, w gHT. ETAL 2,576,248

REPEATING RUBBER BAND TOY GUN I Filed April 7, 1947 ox/1s WEIGHT Patented Nov. 27, 1951 REPEATING RUBBER BAND TOY GUN Louis D. Wright and Thomas C. Swope, Beaumont, Tex.

Application April 7, 1947, Serial No. 739,890

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to toy guns of the repeating type, that is to say the gun is capable of discharging a plurality of projectiles successively and, in the present embodiment of the invention, the said projectiles comprise rubber bands which are installed on the gun in a manner that they may be successively released under the influence of a trigger adjustably mounted on the stock of the gun in operative position to be moved into relation to the projectiles successively.

An object of the invention is to produce a toy gun having a plurality of shoulders, one back of the other, which afford lodgments for rubber bands, and a front projecting portion of the gun constitutes an anchorage for the nested rubber bands which are displaced therefrom as the tensioned rubber bands are released, as will presently appear.

A further object of the invention is to produce a toy gun having a longitudinally disposed slot in which a pivot is slidable, the said pivot extending through a trigger oscillatively positioned in a longitudinally and vertically disposed slot in the gun stock; and it is furthermore the purpose of the inventor to provide a toy gun of the character indicated comprising comparatively few, inexpensive parts which are strong and durable, as well as efficient and satisfactory in use.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists in the details of construction, and in the arrangement and combination of parts to be hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed.

In describing the invention in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this application, wherein like characters denote corresponding parts in the several views, and in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a view in side elevation of a toy gun embodying the invention;

Figure 2 illustrates a top plan View thereof;

Figure 3 illustrates a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. l and Figure 4 illustrates a side elevation of the trigger.

Figure 5 is a fragmental detail View showing the manner whereby the rubber missile is released.

In these drawings, 5 denotes a gun stock having a vertically disposed slot 6 at an appropriate location between its ends, and in the upper surface of the stock of the gun in the zone thereof where the slot is formed, spaced shoulders I are formed and they may be of any appropriate number, according to the number of projectiles that are to be discharged. The stock is also provided with transverse slots 8 extending longitudinally of the stock, in which a pivot 9 is slidable. The pivot is carried by a trigger comprising a handle I it and a flange portion II which is of a Width substantially that of the slot 6, and the said flange portion is intended to move up and down in the said slot 6. The upper edge of the flange has a rubber band displacing shoulder it which, in its operation, projects upwardly above the upper edge of the stock and it is operative to engage one of the rub her hands and move it out of engagement with the shoulders on which it is lodged while the projectile is held in what may be termed cocked position, that is to say it is under tension which will cause it to snap and be projected from the end of the holder as it is released from the shoulder.

The handle it is in the nature of a trigger and it maybe of any appropriate dimensions so that it can be grasped by an operator and moved 1ongitudinally of the slot 3 into position to operate in conjunction with a rubber band lodged on any one of the shoulders I, and the movement of the trigger and discharging mechanism may be accomplished by grasping the trigger or handle It so that it can be moved in either direction longitudinally of the stock.

A noise making instrumentality which would simulate the discharge of the firearm is carried by the trigger and it includes a toothed wheel 13 rotatably mounted in a cavity i l of the said trigger, and the teeth of the wheel project a sufficient distance below the lower edge of the trigger as to be engaged by a finger of the operator who can turn the wheel the distance of one tooth during each operation. It is shown that a clapper or noise making plate hi, which is preferably resilient or of spring metal, or it may be in the nature of a resilient wooden element, is anchored by a fastening It to the bottom surface of the trigger so that one end projects in the path of travel or" the teeth and when the said end is depressed by the movement of the teeth and released, it will snap back into engagement with the trigger and make a noise simulating a shot. While this noise making instrumentality may be attached to the stock itself, it has been found to be a convenient assembly when associated with the trigger.

The instrumentality just described while serving as a noise maker as pointed out, also presents a material additional advantage in the operation of the toy gun. This will be understood from the fact that the simplified form of the assemblage presents the trigger element ii) as an element which rocks bodily about pivot *9 with the rear face of the element extending into the palm portion of the hand; in this respect, the element movement diiTers somewhat from the unusual form of gun equipment Where the shape of the rear face is provided by the usual trigger guard which is not movable with the trigger; to therefore rock this guard tends to break down the simulation effect which the toy gun is to provide. Since the member 13 with its four arms normally presents one of these as exposed below the recess which houses the remaining arms, with the forward adjacent arm resting on planar member Hi, the exposed arm of member l3 will simulate the usual trigger with member 15 providing the usual resistance to trigger pull, the result being that the user, when engaged in. firing the gun is less likely to center his thoughts on the unusual bodily rocking of the trigger element, and thus tend more to the aiming of the gun'and the gradual movement such as is present under trigger pull conditions, the bodily movement of the element being more or less of a reflex action.

The advantage comes through the fact that the reflex action will tend to be gradual to accord with the trigger pull, so that the raising movement of the band on its shoulders 'i' will also be gradual and therefore less likely to break the band, the latter being released approximately at the same time the trigger pull has caused the adjacent housed arm to place member 15 under tension until the arm escapes the member with the latter producing thenoise as it returns to its normal position.

In Figure 1, a rubber band I1 is shown as embracing the end of the rubber band anchoring projection l8 and the rubber band is also shown as extending to the forward shoulder 'i where it is in cocked position to be discharged.

We claim:

In a toy gun assemblage, wherein the missiles are of rubber band type with a plurality of these disposed slot the side walls of which have their 4 7 upper marginal zones formed with a succession of laterally alined shoulders progressively arranged from the front of the zones rearwardly for the lodgment of the bands individually and with the shoulders extending in a common plane, the rear of the several bands overlying the slot, said slotted zone of the stock also having an elongated transverse slot located below the shoulder zone and elongated parallel to such plane with the forward end of the slot in advance of the shoulder zone and its rear end approximately mid-way of thelength of the shouldered zone,

and a trigger element having an upper zone adapted to lie within the vertically disposed slot and a lower zone exposed below the stock, said element having its upper zone provided with a formation operative within the elongated slot to provide a pivot for the element movable longitudinally of its slot, the upper zone of the element also having an upwardly extending rear zone the upper portion of which is of step form, said formation being located below and forward- 1y of the step location to thereby cause the step to swing arcuately upward and forward when rocking the element to release a positioned, band, the exposed portion of the element having opposite ledges adapted to contact the lower face of the stock, each ledge presenting a pair of zonal faces inclined to each other to thereby pe1-,

mit free swinging movement of the element for limited distances during discharge of a band'missile and free advance of the element in succession to such discharge. a

' THOMAS C. SWOPE.

LOUIS D. WRIGHT.

REFERENCES CIT ED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

